Perspective from a complete newbie :(

[Mittelwaechter]

SH3 is incomplete, has a very bad documentation and a steep learning curve. The navigation tutorial has an error too.

Not the best premise for a newbie to get into the game.

Choose one teacher and follow his advice, I'd recommend Snestorm. If he fails to give proper advice 25 guys will show up and correct his comments.

Don't be shy to ask simple questions - no one will take the mickey out of you.

[poetic hunter]

Originally Posted by Snestorm

These are the only two things he will do for you. The other buttons look very impressive, but do nothing. They don't work. There, SH3 is messed up, not you.

Originally Posted by Mittelwaechter

SH3 is incomplete, has a very bad documentation and a steep learning curve. The navigation tutorial has an error too.

Not the best premise for a newbie to get into the game.

Ah..I see. So the game does have some bugs and a few functions that don't work as intended. That's good to know ! It would have saved me some hours of frustration, if I knew this before.


Thanks for the encouragement, guys. I will take Snestorm's advice and just start a career. I will use the career mode to learn more about the game, and help me with that tutorial I intend to write later on for complete beginners.

And if I run into serious snags, I will run back here with my tail between my legs.

[poetic hunter]

Ran into a problem already.

Does the Weapons officer make mistakes with Torpedoes? Or am I the one making mistakes?

Tell me where I'm going wrong:


Step 1: I press F3 and go to periscope, I raise the periscope and turn around. I see different ships. Some have a green arrow, some have a yellow arrow and some have a red arrow. What is the difference between these arrow colors?

Anyway, I pick a ship with a yellow arrow on it, and it's automatically identified as a cargo merchant. I then press Tab to zoom in, then I press lock to lock on to it.


Step 2:

I go down to the weapon officer and click on torpedo attack, then I click on identify,and find solution.

Step 3:

I click on hatch number 1 to open it, then I press fire. Do I have to stay on the F-3 periscope screen after I fire a torpedo?




Step 4:

The torpedo goes straight out of my sub's front. Whereas the target was off to the side.

In other words, a complete miss.

Where did I go wrong?

----------------------


(I also notice that I always miss whenever I use hatch number 5. Is there something special about torpedo hatch 5?)

[Convycmg]

Hatch number 5 is your stern tube (on a Type VII u-boat). It points out of your rear end, whereas your hatches 1-4 are your forward tubes. For your stern tube you need to line up your boat so that your stern is facing where your WO calculates the ship you want to hit will be.

[Convycmg]

In fact sounds like a more general point about torpedo gyro angles would help you out, going by what you said, though there are many here that would do a far better job at it than me!

The gyro angle is the amount your eel has to turn itself when you fire it in order for it to intercept the target. Zero degrees is ideal; that is you've calculated that the target ship will be directly in front of you at the time your toprpedo will find it so you simply fire your shot directly ahead (for your front tubes; for your rear tubes the ship will be passing directly BEHIND you at the point of impact). Anything more than about 5 degrees of gyro angle is problematic, which is why if you aren't aware that tube five points backwards you will never hit with it. Any poor torpedo you fire at a ship in front of you would have to make a massive turn in order to meet the target.

Also remember that at the point of impact your torpedo should hit the target ship as close to a 90 degree angle as possible or it will sheer off she hull instead of detonating. You can check this kind if thing early on as long as you have the event camera enabled. It's all about angles

[Draka]

For the real simple answer - green means a pretty good firing solution - torpedo los! Yellow is very iffy - only gonna work if the target does something stupid like turn into yer eel's path - work towards green. Red is forgetta-bout-it - no go. Like firing your stern tube at a ship on yer bow - ain't gonna happen.

[desirableroasted]

Originally Posted by poetic hunter

Ran into a problem already.

Does the Weapons officer make mistakes with Torpedoes? Or am I the one making mistakes?

Tell me where I'm going wrong:


Step 1: I press F3 and go to periscope, I raise the periscope and turn around. I see different ships. Some have a green arrow, some have a yellow arrow and some have a red arrow. What is the difference between these arrow colors?

Anyway, I pick a ship with a yellow arrow on it, and it's automatically identified as a cargo merchant. I then press Tab to zoom in, then I press lock to lock on to it.


Step 2:

I go down to the weapon officer and click on torpedo attack, then I click on identify,and find solution.

Step 3:

I click on hatch number 1 to open it, then I press fire. Do I have to stay on the F-3 periscope screen after I fire a torpedo?




Step 4:

The torpedo goes straight out of my sub's front. Whereas the target was off to the side.

In other words, a complete miss.

Where did I go wrong?

----------------------


(I also notice that I always miss whenever I use hatch number 5. Is there something special about torpedo hatch 5?)

What's happening is that you are "losing lock", which will screw up your approach.

I would do things pretty much the opposite.

Let's assume calm, Academy weather... (there is plenty of advice about how to approach in bad weather on these forums).

0) Targets out there. Green means a good shot for impact torps, Yellow means very iffy, Red means impossible. (Magnetic pistolled torps are a different breed, stick to impact for now).

HOWEVER: the game assumes you are going to use tube 1, which is a forward tube. If you want to use tube 5 -- the rear -- click on it and the triangle will change accordingly. But see below.

1) Identify the target. It has a draft of 6 meters? OK...

2) Go to TDC. Click on Tube 1, set your depth to 3 meters, since you are going to make an impact shot. Set your I/M (Impact/Magnetic) switch to I. Set your Torp speed to the highest.

3) Hit Q to open your tube. This is very important; failure to do so delays your shot by several seconds, long enough to ruin your shot.

4) Angle the boat so that you are pretty much perpendicular to the target. We call this "AOB" and, again, there's pages of material about approaches here on the forum.

5) Go to your scope or uzo and "lock" the target. Fire (later you will learn to nuance your shots, but for now just shoot on lock).

These are the bare bones basics. Hope it helps.

[Pisces]

Originally Posted by desirableroasted

...
2) Go to TDC. Click on Tube 1, set your depth to 3 meters, since you are going to make an impact shot. Set your I/M (Impact/Magnetic) switch to I. Set your Torp speed to the highest.

Not your (Uboot) depth! The depth of the torpedo run!

[Gerald]

it is good if you do not have obvious attack periscope longer a need to Avoid detection by other ships as DD or the vessel you have been meaning to sink..




This is only a small example,how it would look like in a given situation

[Tessa]

Originally Posted by Vendor

it is good if you do not have obvious attack periscope longer a need to Avoid detection by other ships as DD or the vessel you have been meaning to sink..




This is only a small example,how it would look like in a given situation

When you lock the scope/UZO on a ship and get the green/yellow/red arrow also remember that while it is locked it will aim right at that spot; which isn't necessarily the best spot to fire at to sink the ship quickly. Each ship has its sweet spot:



I was using a magnetic shot and it landed exactly where I wanted it to (under the middle turret, there's 3 adjacent to each other on the Nelson), I wasn't expecting it to go down with just 1 torpedo on a battleship (have sunk many with 2, but none with just 1). The other shot was aimed at the boilers which hit a few seconds later but didn't matter, the event cam from the first shot was brutal enough that it looked like the ship was going to crack in half like many merchants do when you hit them at their achilles heel.

In order to aim at a specific spot on a ship you'll need to unlock the scope (toggle the L key so the lock light goes off) and aim the recticle at the exact spot you're after (if target is stationary or using the weapons officer).



General rule of thumb is to aim for boilers (aft section) or cargo compartments (like the fuel tanks on tankers) and if you're lucky can get a 1 shot kill on a 10,000+ ton ship. If you want to tangle with capital ships magazines always cause massive damage.

[K-61]

GWX is so amazing because of the many variables factored into the damage model. I soon grew weary of the same tired, predictable Hollywood damage effects of stock SH3. Now? I can never accurately predict how many torpedoes I will need to sink a given target. I've sunk large ships with just one, and needed more than one to sink a puny freighter of under 2K.

One tactic I have found to be effective, especially in rough weather, is to manually target a torpedo near the front of the target. The flooding in the bow section can, but now always, drag the front end under. With her engines pushing her forward, she progressively drives herself underwater, or causes her to slow so much I can tackle her after she falls behind the convoy.

[Tessa]

Regarding the Academy, though the navigation is screwed up it still gets you somewhat familiar with the keys used for navigation. Long as you can accomplish the objectives (whether you credit for them or not isn't really important) is the important part, getting used to the controls. Unless you're suicidal DON'T do the Flak exam, its unforgiving and general rule of thumb is to avoid attacking planes at all costs and dive to escape em.

Until you're comfortable with everything else I wouldn't think of trying manual targeting (lot of experienced players don't use it either) till last. There's a number of good GUI's out there to help with manual targeting if you really want to tackle that.

The learning curve is steep and harsh, its better to set realism low (like 25% or less) so you can stay alive longer and not have to worry about too many things at once (like fuel consumption or CO2 content) so you can focus on learning how to play. Once you cross the hump and get familiar the rewards are worth the effort, there's no shame in starting out easy to learn the game.

[K-61]

Another good idea is to install stock SH3, do the academy and then install a mod like GWX. That way, the flak exercise in the academy is not so unforgiving. In any event, it is not necessary to run the academy exams in GWX as you get 1500 renown to play with at the beginning. This way you will get to learn how to handle the flak guns without getting killed right away. Once you are in GWX, avoid tangling with planes unless you are forced to; even then, I do not man the guns myself as I suck at it. My boat's gunners do a better job than me. They fended off three passes by a Hudson last night. The reason I didn't dive was because I was surfaced and reloading externals. The game allows you to simply suspend the reload, but I simulate the time it would take to dismantle the external gear before diving. I took some damage, but the my flak gunners managed to send the Hudson away with smoke trailing from its port wing. I tell you, I was terrifed seeing that thing diving on me, machine guns blinking rounds which zinged around my head. He must have been a rookie pilot as we did not take any crew casualties and only minor damage which took a couple of hours to repair [I have the longer repair times mod installed.]

[Convycmg]

Draft: it's a measure of how far below the waterline the ship goes. A draft of six metres means the very bottom of she ship is six metres below the waterline. You can find the draft values for each ship in the recognition manual. Small nible ships like destoyers and corvettes might have a draft of only one or two metres, whereas a big old tanker or battleship might have a keel far more than 10 m below the waterline.

The further below the waterline you hit with your torpedo the more damage you will do, so you will want to check the draft of the ship you are targeting and set your torpedo depth appropirately. You will DEFINITELY want to view your shots through the ecternal 'event camera' when figuring this out, as if you set your eel too deep, it won't impact a flat surface at 90 degrees and will just bounce off when using an impact pistol to detonate your torpedo.

Knowing the draft of a target also allows you to set your torpedo to detonate magnetically as it passes under the ship, between 0.5 and 1 metre below the keel (the draft value given in the recog manual). This is the most devastating shot you can carry out and you can sink even the biggest ships with a single torpedo this way by breakng its back. You should only use magnetic detonation in calm seas, and IMO when just starting out sticking to leanign with imapct pistols is the safest way as you avoid introducing yet another variable that you must keep track of.

EDIT: where are my manners; Herr Obersteuermann not only provided a fine explanation of draft including photographic evidence but also didn't forget the important point of actually congratulating you on achieving some success!

[poetic hunter]

Originally Posted by desirableroasted

What's happening is that you are "losing lock", which will screw up your approach.

I would do things pretty much the opposite.

Let's assume calm, Academy weather... (there is plenty of advice about how to approach in bad weather on these forums).

0) Targets out there. Green means a good shot for impact torps, Yellow means very iffy, Red means impossible. (Magnetic pistolled torps are a different breed, stick to impact for now).

HOWEVER: the game assumes you are going to use tube 1, which is a forward tube. If you want to use tube 5 -- the rear -- click on it and the triangle will change accordingly. But see below.

1) Identify the target. It has a draft of 6 meters? OK...

2) Go to TDC. Click on Tube 1, set your depth to 3 meters, since you are going to make an impact shot. Set your I/M (Impact/Magnetic) switch to I. Set your Torp speed to the highest.

3) Hit Q to open your tube. This is very important; failure to do so delays your shot by several seconds, long enough to ruin your shot.

4) Angle the boat so that you are pretty much perpendicular to the target. We call this "AOB" and, again, there's pages of material about approaches here on the forum.

5) Go to your scope or uzo and "lock" the target. Fire (later you will learn to nuance your shots, but for now just shoot on lock).

These are the bare bones basics. Hope it helps.

UPDATE: I followed the advice here and managed to sink a yellow target ship from the rear using torpedo 5 !

Thanks for that.

Many questions remain, however.

One: What do you mean by draft of 6m? And

Two: Why did you tell me to set the depth to 3? How was that number determined?


Three: When I did the Aob, I basically averaged it. I just temporarily put it on manual and twisted the ship to where it sort of looked perpendicular. Not very precise at all, but it worked somehow. Is this ok for now or should I delve into the complex intricacies of making it precise ?